CHAP. II.

Confequences of the Execution of JOHN CALAS.

F the order of White Penitentiaries had been

I the cause of the punishment of an innocent

person, and of the utter ruin and difperfion of a whole family, and of branding them with ́ that ignominy which is annexed to those who suffer, when it ought properly to fall only upon those who pass an unjuft fentence; if the.frantic hurry of these penitentiaries in celebrating as a faint, one whom they ought to have treated as a felf-murderer, brought a virtuous, an innocent fellow citizen to the scaffold; furely, this fatal mistake ought to make them true penitents for the reft of their lives; and both them and the judges ought to have their eyes continually filled with tears, without wearing a white cloak, or a mask on their face to hide those tears. We have a proper refpect for all religious orders; they are edifying; but will all the good they have ever been able to do the ftate, compenfate for the shocking disaster of which they had been the caufe? Their inftitution feems to have been the work of that

zeal

zeal which animates the catholics of Languedoc against those we call Hugonots. One would be tempted to imagine, that they had made a vow to hate their brethren; and that, thoʼmen have religion enough to hate and perfecute, they have not to love and cherish each other. But what would be the cafe, if these orders were governed by enthusiastic fuperiors, as were certain congregations, among whom, to use the words of one of our most eloquent and learned magistrates, the custom of seeing vifions was reduced into an art and system? Or, that their convents had in them those dark rooms, called meditation rooms, which were filled with pictures of frightful devils, armed with long horns and talons, flaming gulphs, croffes, and daggers, with the holy name of Jefus in a fcroll over them? Edifying spectacles, doubtless, for eyes already blinded with fanaticifm, and for imaginations no less filled with mistaken zeal, than with abject fubmiffion to the will of their directors!

There have been times, and we know it but too well, in which religious orders have been dangerous to the ftate. The Frérots and the Flagellants have excited troubles in the kingdom. The league owed its origin to fuch asC fociations.

fociations. But wherefore fhould any fet of men thus diftinguish themselves from the rest of their fellow-citizens? Is it that they think 'themselves more perfect? If fo, it is offering an infult to the rest of the community: or are they defirous that every chriftian fhould become a member of their fociety? Truly, it would be a curious fight to fee all the inhabitants of Europe in long hoods and masks, with two little round holes to peep through! Or, laftly, do they seriously think, that this dress is more acceptable to God than the coats and waistcoats we ufually wear? No, no, there is fomething more at the bottom; this habit is a kind of controverfial uniform, a fignal for thofe of a contrary opinion to ftand upon their guard; and might in time kindle a kind of civil war in our minds, that would terminate in the most terrible confequences, was not the wisdom of the king and of his minifters as great as the folly of these fanatics.

Every one is fufficiently fenfible what fatal effects have arifen, fince chriftians have begun to dispute among themselves concerning modes of belief; the blood of the fubject has flown in torrents either on the scaffold or in the field,

from

from the fourth century to the present time. But let us confine ourselves only to the wars and difafters which the difputes concerning reformation have excited in France, and examine into their fource. Perhaps a fhort and faithful portrait of these numberless calamities, may open the eyes of fome who have not had the advantage of education, and touch thofe hearts which are not by nature callous.

CHAP. III.

A SKETCH of the REFORMATION in the

WH

Sixteenth Century.

W the undertandings of

HEN learning began to revive, and the understandings of mankind became more enlightened, there was a general complaint of errors and abuses; and every one acknowledged the complaint to be just.

Pope Alexander VI. made a public purchase of the pontifical crown, and his five bastards fhared with him the profits. His fon, the cardinal duke of Borgia, in concert with the pope his father, caufed the noble families of Vitelli, Urbino, Gravina, and Olivaretto, together with an hundred other lords, to be made away with, in order to feize upon their eftates. Julius II. full of the fame fpirit, excommunicated Lewis the Twelfth of France, while he himself, armed cap-a-pée, ravaged a part of Italy with fire and fword. Leo X. in order to raise money to pay the expences of his pleasures, made a fale of indulgences, like goods in a common market. Those who oppofed fuch fhame

ful